Tag James Arnold Taylor

The Essential Clone Wars: “Destiny”

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

SERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S6:E12 – “Destiny”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: Tom Kane, Jaime King, Ashley Eckstein, Corey Burton, James Arnold Taylor
WRITER: Christian Taylor
DIRECTOR: Kyle Dunlevy
PREMIERE DATE: March 7, 2014
SYNOPSIS: Yoda continues his quest for life beyond death.

***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Yoda opting to leave his lightsaber behind as he ventures into the unknown is a really nice callback (Or call forward?) to The Empire Strikes Back. Our little green friend wasn’t asking Luke to do anything he wouldn’t do himself.

On the subject of Luke, the line “[Yoda] is to teach one that will save the universe from great imbalance.” is obviously a reference to him. Cute. Again, a nice little nod to Empire.

“Destiny” brings us the creation of a delightful little one-off character I’ll call “Dark Yoda,” i.e. the essence of the darkness that lies within Yoda. He’s a little reminiscent of Gollum of The Lord of the Rings fame. But he’s no less delightful for it.

One thing I definitely appreciated about the Yoda/Dark Yoda confrontation: No lightsabers. It would have been easy to turn the scrap between the two of them into a lightsaber duel. But they resisted the temptation. Thus we get to see Yoda in a physical fight with no weapons, which I don’t know that Star Wars had done up to this point.

There are a lot of floating platforms on this world that Yoda has to hop to and from. Gives it a little bit of a Super Mario Bros. feeling, doesn’t it?

Yoda’s destination going into the next episode is a world called Moraband, which is referred to as “the ancient homeworld of the Sith.” What’s interesting to me about that from a creative standpoint is that if this episode had been made today, Yoda likely would have journeyed to Exegol. That’s a fun little thought…

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

The Essential Clone Wars: “Voices”

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

SERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S6:E11 – “Voices”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: Tom Kane, Matt Lanter, Terrence Carson, James Arnold Taylor, Catherine Taber
GUEST-STARRING: Liam Neeson
WRITER: Christian Taylor
DIRECTOR: Danny Keller
PREMIERE DATE: March 7, 2014
SYNOPSIS: Guided by the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn, Yoda goes on a special quest.

***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

First and foremost, it’s extremely cool to have Liam Neeson back. Even independently of him having played Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menace, he’s got such a great voice. He’d previously come in for the season three episode, “Ghosts of Mortis.” But his role here is obviously much more substantial in the grand scheme of things.

The prequels never suitably followed up, or even explored, the idea of Qui-Gon speaking to Yoda from beyond the grave, and how that ultimately leads to Yoda and Obi-Wan being able to come back as Force ghosts. So I’m extremely grateful that The Clone Wars explored that, and with plenty of fan service to boot.

For all the unexplored territory they venture into, these last few episodes of season six just might be the most essential of “The Essential Clone Wars.”

This episode continues on a theme we’ve seen in previous episodes, including the last one: The idea of public confidence in the Jedi being undermined. The idea being that part of how bad guys bring down a society is by diluting public confidence in its institutions. Not to get too political here, but we saw a lot of that recently during the Trump presidency.

The scenes with Yoda in the hospital bed, and then later in the isolation tank (shown above), do a nice job of reminding us just how small and seemingly vulnerable the character is. He’s not vulnerable, of course. But the visual is interesting.

Oddly enough Rig Nema, the doctor character, is voiced by Catherine Taber, who also provides the voice for Padme. Even more odd is that she doesn’t do much to differentiate between her Padme voice and her Rig Nema voice. So it essentially sounds like Yoda is being tended to by Padme.

As fun as it is to watch Yoda explore Dagobah for the first time, and walk into the same cave he’ll send Luke into decades later, you’ve got to believe it was even more fun for the animators to work on. There’s no imagery more synonymous with classic Star Wars than Yoda in the swamp.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

The Essential Clone Wars: “The Lost One”

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

SERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S6:E10 – “The Lost One”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: Tom Kane, James Arnold Taylor, Brian George, Matt Lanter, Corey Burton
WRITER: Christian Taylor
DIRECTOR: Brian Kalin O’Connell
PREMIERE DATE: March 7, 2014
SYNOPSIS: The Jedi explore the mystery of Sifo Dyas’ death.

***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Little peek behind the curtain: For the most part, I’ve been using the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars Essential Episodes” playlist on Disney+ to select which Clone Wars episodes I feature. But that has to change now, as mysteriously there are no season six episodes on said list. The three episodes I plan to feature from season six are ones I had previously seen, and frankly, I think are awesome. They dive into one of the big unresolved issues from Attack of the Clones: The mystery of Sifo Dyas.

We open the episode with a vehicle on wheels slowly driving through a sandstorm. The novelty of seeing wheeled vehicles in Star Wars still hasn’t worn off for me. I wonder what the logic is behind them using one here, as opposed to one with hover technology. Does it allow for more stable navigation through the storm?

This episode goes on awhile before we get any lightsaber fights, shooting, or any other Star Wars action staples. That’s fine for adult viewers, obviously. But it makes me wonder what younger kids thought of this episode. Did it hold their attention? Was the expansion on a character only briefly mentioned during Attack of the Clones enough to keep them interested?

How much time passes between this episode and Revenge of the Sith? A matter of months? Because Anakin has that line to Dooku: “My powers have doubled since we last met, Count.” Casual viewers would naturally think he’s referring to a couple of years earlier during the events of Attack of the Clones. But those of us who’ve watched The Clone Wars know Anakin and Dooku crossed swords a few different times over the course of this big galactic conflict. I mean, obviously Anakin is boasting. But it’s kind of a weird boast.

“My powers have doubled since we last met. Remember? It was just a few months ago…”

By the end of this episode, the Jedi Council learns that Count Dooku is responsible for the creation of the Clone army. Understandably, they’re of the mindset that if this got out, it would seriously undermine public confidence in the Jedi and the war effort. Again, as we saw with the story that led to Ahsoka’s departure from the Jedi Order, we’ve got this theme of people losing faith in the Jedi, and the Jedi’s fear of such a thing. I like that idea. The notion that the galaxy is becoming more skeptical about the Jedi lends credence to the idea that Palpatine could frame them as the villains in Revenge of the Sith.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

The Essential Clone Wars: “The Lawless”

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

Satine death, Star Wars the Clone Wars, The LawlessSERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S5:E16 – “The Lawless”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: James Arnold Taylor, Anna Graves, Sam Witwer, Ian Abercrombie, Katee Sackhoff
WRITER: Chris Collins
DIRECTOR: Brian Kalin O’Connell
PREMIERE DATE: February 2, 2013
SYNOPSIS: Obi-Wan travels to Mandalore to save Satine from Maul’s forces.

***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Wait, Satine has a nephew named Korkie? Why is that funny to me?

So now we have not only have Mandalorians with red armor, but Mandalorians whose helmets have horns like Darth Maul. You just know the artists and designers had fun with that one.

Having received Duchess Satine’s desperate transmission for help, Obi-Wan travels to Mandalore to save her. Question: Did Yoda and the Jedi Council know about him going to Mandalore, or did Obi-Wan do it on his own? If so, does he face any consequences for that? Just asking…

After they are captured by Mandalorian forces, Obi-Wan is forced to watch as Satine is executed by Maul. Needless to say, this makes their feud even more personal than it already was. I wasn’t necessarily surprised to see Satine die. But I was surprised to see her simply executed the way she was. She didn’t go out in a blaze of glory or anything. They just got everybody in a room, and Maul killed her. Simple as that.

Sensing what’s happening, Darth Sidious personally travels to Mandalore to confront Maul. And again I have to ask, does anyone know where he went? He is the chancellor of the Republic, and they are in the middle of a war. He can’t just go off without telling anybody, can he?

I understand these kinds of details aren’t necessarily important in the context of telling the story. The important thing is that Obi-Wan and Palpatine ultimately end up on Mandalore. But it’s fair question, isn’t it?

I noticed that just before the two-on one duel starts with Sidious, Maul, and Savage Opress, Maul does the “Obi-Wan pose” (shown below). I can only assume that was intentional. The Obi-Wan pose wasn’t as much of a thing yet. But the show had done it before. And of course, we’d see it in Revenge of the Sith.

Ian Abercrombie, who voices Palpatine/Sidious, has the character’s evil laugh down pat. That makes his fight sequence with Maul and Opress that much more effective.

There are a lot of “echoes” in this episode. You’ve got Obi-Wan luring that Mandalorian on to his ship and stealing his uniform, much like they did in A New Hope. Then, seconds before he sees Palpatine, Maul says he senses a presence he hasn’t felt since… Again, like in A New Hope. Then, after it’s revealed that Bo-Katan is Satine’s sister, Obi-Wan says “I’m so sorry,” much like he says to Padme in Revenge of the Sith.

Star Wars does love it’s callbacks, doesn’t it?

To Maul’s shock and horror, Sidious kills Savage Opress. Thus, possibly my least favorite character in all of Star Wars is put down. Whatever shall we do without him?

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

The Essential Clone Wars: “Revival”

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

Savage Opress, Maul, Star Wars the Clone Wars, RevivalSERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S5:E1 – “Revival”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: Sam Witwer, Clancy Brown, James Arnold Taylor, Jim Cummings, Matt Later
WRITER: Chris Collins
DIRECTOR: Steward Lee
PREMIERE DATE: September 29, 2012
SYNOPSIS: Maul and Savage Opress align themselves with pirates.

***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

The brief “Master and Apprentice” scene, where Maul and Opress fight over who has what title, is consistent with George Lucas’ portrayal of the Sith. Treachery and betrayal is a staple of any Sith partnership. Each is always looking to be more powerful than the other, and in the end will make a grab for that power.

Legendary voice actor Jim Cummings performs in this episode as both Hondo Ohnaka and the warehouse director. He’s an extremely versatile performer known for voicing Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, the Tasmanian Devil, and countless other characters. This is my first exposure to Hondo, who had been on the show in previous episodes. But anyone who’s heard Cummings perform villain roles before would likely recognize his voice very quickly. The Clone Wars was very lucky to have him, as any show is.

Hondo Ohnaka, Star Wars te Clone Wars, revival

I’ve always wondered how Maul got involved with Crimson Dawn in Solo: A Star Wars Story. This episode gives us a brief glimpse through that proverbial window, as Maul becomes involved with organized crime for what is presumably the first time.

The Jedi Obi-Wan travels with in this episode, and is ultimately killed by Savage Opress, is Adi Gallia. The character made her debut as a background player in The Phantom Menace. Oddly enough, I remember her most prominently as a playable character in the video game Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles.

What is that green vapor emanating from Opress’ wound after his arm is cut off? Did they just add that as a spooky effect?

The episode ends on a shot of Palpatine. I’d be curious to know his take on Maul’s return. Hopefully they meet again at some point, as they obviously have unfinished business…

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

The Essential Clone Wars: “Revenge”

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

SERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S4:E22 – “Revenge”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: Clancy Brown, Sam Witwer, James Arnold Taylor, Nika Futterman, Barbara Goodson
WRITER: Katie Lucas
DIRECTOR: Brian Kalin O’Connell
PREMIERE DATE: March 16, 2012
SYNOPSIS: Maul and Savage Opress enact their plan to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi.

***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Very early in the episode, we hear Maul repeating the name “Kenobi” over and over again. Last time, I questioned how the Jedi knew Maul’s name. This time, I question how Maul knows Obi-Wan’s name. Did Nute Gunray know? Did Sidious know?

Barbara Goodson, who voices Mother Talzin, also provided the voice for another famous witch: Rita Repulsa on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. When she’s chanting and casting her spell on Maul, it’s the closest she comes on this series to sounding like Rita again. As a Power Rangers geek, that was pretty cool to hear.

As should be obvious to anyone who’s read the story, Maul’s new look is based on his appearance in the short comic book tale, “Old Wounds.” That story highlighted the Star Wars: Visionaries graphic novel released in 2005. It saw Maul, complete with robotic legs, travel to Tatooine to go after a toddler-aged Luke Skywalker. He was, of course, met by his old rival Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maul’s look, and the story itself, came to us courtesy of Aaron McBride.

Right before the fight with Maul and Savage Opress ensues, Obi-Wan does “the pose” (shown above). That’s what I’m calling it, at least. The one where he brings his saber-holding hand behind him, and holds his free hand out front. He did this in Revenge of the Sith, then later in Rebels, then again in Obi-Wan Kenobi. He even did it in Star Wars: Brotherhood. At this point, “the Obi-Wan pose” would be an apt name for it.

Obi-Wan and Asajj Ventress teaming up is a fun little arrangement. The episode ends with them fleeing together in a ship. I wish we could have seen how they parted ways, given their bitter history. Did they come to a mutual understanding and decide, in fitting with the episode’s opening tagline, the enemy of my enemy is my friend? It would have made for an interesting scene.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

The Essential Clone Wars: “Witches of the Mist”

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

SERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S3:E14 – “Witches of the Mist”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: Corey Burton, Clancy Brown, Nika Futterman, James Arnold Taylor, Matt Lanter
WRITER: Katie Lucas
DIRECTOR: Giancarlo Volpe
PREMIERE DATE: January 7, 2011
SYNOPSIS: Asajj Ventress springs her trap on Count Dooku.

***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Another thing that’s stupid about the “Savage Opress” name? George Lucas has said that the bad guys in Star Wars (specifically in the prequel era) all think they’re good guys, and doing what’s best for the galaxy. If you thought you were a good guy, would you tack the word “oppress” on to your apprentice’s name? No. You wouldn’t.

Unless you were stupid. There’s always that.

Granted, I didn’t buy the whole “bad guys think they’re good” theory in the first place. Either way, somebody here is wrong…

Obi-Wan immediately assumed the footage they got of Savage Opress was of Darth Maul. I’m assuming he, and the Jedi at large, learned Maul’s name from interrogating Nute Gunray after the events of The Phantom Menace.

Dooku’s sadistic training methods for Savage Opress feel true to his character, and the Sith as a clan. The Sith channel hate into power in the Force. I’d say electrocution via Dark Side lightning is a decent way to spark hate in someone.

Get it? Spark? Tee hee.

How long did Dooku actually train with Opress? Doesn’t seem like very long…

Mother Talzin simply tells Obi-Wan and Anakin that Opress is on the planet Toydaria, and they go running off to find him. Shouldn’t they have asked for, y’know, more specifics? Toydaria is an entire world. You’d think they’d want to narrow it down to a city or something.

Fun fact: King Katuunko is voiced by Brian George. He also voices Ki-Adi Mundi. George is probably best known for playing Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld. He also had a recurring role as Raj’s father on The Big Bang Theory.

King Katuunko has a pretty brutal death in this episode. He gets his neck forcibly snapped, and then his corpse gets dragged around by Opress. Not exactly the dignified ending you look for when you’re a king.

The title of this episode is a little misleading. It’s more about Ventress, Dooku, and Opress than the titular “Witches of the Mist.” A better title might have been “The Sith Trap,” or something to that effect.

At the end of the episode, Mother Talzin reveals to Savage Opress that his brother Maul is alive. I maintain that if they wanted to bring Maul back, they didn’t need to create the Savage Opress character. They could simply have had Talzin send Ventress after Maul, with the idea that he could help her overthrow Dooku. The whole “Darth Maul has a brother” idea grates on me to this day.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

The Essential Clone Wars: “Nightsisters”

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

SERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S3:E12 – “Nightsisters”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: Nika Futterman, Barbara Goodson, Corey Burton, Matt Lanter, James Arnold Taylor
WRITER: Katie Lucas
DIRECTOR: Giancarlo Volpe
PREMIERE DATE: January 7, 2011
SYNOPSIS: Count Dooku turns on Asajj Ventress, who returns to her home planet to plot her revenge.

***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

To my knowledge, the Nightsisters and the planet Dathomir were created by Dave Wolverton for his 1994 book The Courtship of Princess Leia. Here, nearly two decades later, those elements were used to further the story of not only Asajj Ventress, but as we’ll later see, Darth Maul.

I was surprised to learn that Mother Talzin is voiced by Barbara Goodson, who is widely known as the voice of Rita Repulsa in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Surprised, that is, because Talzin doesn’t sound anything like Rita. I’m always so impressed at the wide range that so many voice actors are capable of. You can now count Goodson among them.

On the subject of that range, this series has turned me on to the greatness of Corey Burton, who voices Count Dooku. He’s been active since the early ’70s, and the list of characters he’s lent his voice to reads like a laundry list. Several laundry lists, actually. On The Clone Wars alone, he voices Dooku, Cad Bane, and Ziro the Hutt. But his Wookieepedia page indicates his connection to the franchise actually goes back to 1979, when he voiced Luke Skywalker for a Disney read-along adaptation of the original film.

Me? I’m just impressed he provided the voice for both Dale and Zipper in Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. What can I say? I’m on a kick because of the new Disney+ movie.

Apparently, if you want to kill a Sith Lord, your best shot is when they’re sleeping. We know from Revenge of the Sith that Palpatine killed Darth Plagueis in his sleep. And Ventress and the Nightsisters come pretty close to doing the same to Dooku here. They must be really sound sleepers…

This episode is written by Katie Lucas, daughter of George Lucas. She wrote numerous episodes of The Clone Wars. She was also one of the writers of an unproduced story arc that would have seen Asajj Ventress fall in love with a Jedi, and ultimately wraps up her story at large. Said story was later turned into the novel Dark Disciple, which is one of the better Star Wars books you’ll ever read.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

The Essential Clone Wars: “ARC Troopers”

Rob Siebert 2 Comments

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

99, Star Wars The Clone Wars, ARC TroopersSERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S3:E2 – “ARC Troopers”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: Dee Bradley Baker, James Arnold Taylor, Matt Lanter, Matthew Wood, Nika Futterman
WRITER: Cameron Litvack
DIRECTOR: Kyle Dunlevy
PREMIERE DATE: September 17, 2010
SYNOPSIS: The Separatists attack the cloning facility on Kamino.

***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

The most interesting part of this episode by about a mile is 99, the elderly clone (shown above). Apparently he was in a previous episode, “Clone Cadets,” which I haven’t seen. So I’m meeting him here for the first time. Apparently he suffered from genetic defects during his cloning process, and thus ages faster than other clones. His character arc goes about where you’d think it would go. But his end still makes for a great moment in the series.

So all the genetic data for the clones is kept in a single room, which is conveniently called the DNA room? Well that’s convenient, now isn’t it? Obi-Wan actually calls it the “DNA chamber” at one point, which at least sounds more dignified…

The four-legged robots climbing up and attacking the city made for a great visual. This episode really capitalizes on the potential of the planet Kamino, and the cloning facility designed for Attack of the Clones.

Clone Cadets, Star Wars the Clone Wars, ARC Troopers

On the subject of Attack of the Clones, the clone cadets we see in this episode are voiced by Daniel Logan, who played a young Boba Fett in that movie. That’s a cool casting choice, as obviously they could have easily found another young actor to play the role.

At the end of the episode, Echo and Fives are both made ARC Troopers. Of course, “ARC Troopers” is also our title. So it’d be nice if the episode reminded us what the heck an ARC Trooper actually is. I guess that’s what Wookiepedia is for.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

The Essential Clone Wars: “The Mandalore Plot”

Rob Siebert 2 Comments

***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”

Star Wars The Clone Wars The Mandalore Plot, Duchess SatineSERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S2:E12 – “The Mandalore Plot”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: James Arnold Taylor, Anna Graves, Jon Favreau, Corey Burton, Greg Proops
WRITER: Melinda Hsu
DIRECTOR: Kyle Dunlevy
PREMIERE DATE: January 29, 2010
SYNOPSIS: Obi-Wan reunites with an old friend to solve a mystery on Mandalore.

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Episodes like “The Mandalore Plot” expose a problem with the show: Obi-Wan’s costume. For whatever reason, characters like Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka appear in the same singular outfit episode after episode. That’s not a drastic problem, as they’re Jedi and virtually always wear similar outfits. But for Obi-Wan it’s a problem, as they opted to put him in battle armor for his singular outfit. That works fine for battle sequences. But this episode starts with a diplomatic mission to Mandalore. As such, the armor is inappropriate. Obi-Wan really should have been in Jedi robes, akin to what he wears in all three prequel films.

Making the Mandalorians their own society of super commandos presents a problem: It devalues Boba Fett and Jango Fett, as we now virtually have a planet full of characters that all have similar costumes and gadgets. Considering what pivotal roles Boba and Jango have in the saga at large, I would have deemed that unacceptable, regardless of whether that’s how the Mandalorians were originally conceived.

Star Wars The Clone Wars, The Mandalore Plot, Pre Vizsla

What’s more, it’s a problem that Star Wars wasn’t able to even try and solve until more than a decade later, when we got to The Mandalorian. When we get to “The Tragedy” in season two, we’re able to see how Boba Fett’s fighting style is much more brutal than Din Djarin’s, and presumably the rest of the Mandalorians. I’d still prefer Boba and Jango had the whole helmet and jetpack M.O. to themselves. But that helped.

On the subject of The Mandalorian, the man who would become its showrunner, Jon Favreau, plays Pre Vizsla. I’m not enamored with that casting choice, though. Maybe it’s the stark contrast of his nasally American accent against the ones James Arnold Taylor and Anna Graves give to Obi-Wan and Satine. (I say that as a guy with a nasally American accent. It’s not an insult, I promise.)

The Clone Wars is a kids show, right? At least in theory? I say that because it’s not often you see a suicide on a kids show. We hear the sound of his body hitting the ground and everything. I ain’t mad at it. I’m just saying you don’t see it often. If ever…

Before strapping Obi-Wan into that Adam West Batman style death trap, the Death Watch soldiers thought enough to take Obi-Wan’s lightsaber. However they apparently didn’t think to check him for communication devices. Bad form, gentlemen.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.